Flare On a Wellhead: How Two Men Vanished Then Came Back

Flare On a Wellhead: How Two Men Vanished Then Came Back A sealed orange-and-black flare canister, thick with barnacles, was found perfectly balanced on a locked inland wellhead cap 1.5 miles from open water - an impossible object that arrived with no tracks and no storm surge. How did marine debris travel into a gated property, and what connection does that single canister have to a night when two men disappeared at sea and then returned? In this episode, we follow the timeline from a routine maintenance route where Karen Collins discovered the flare to the offshore emergency that began four days earlier; the story traces the Cass Meridian, its owner Ken Jensen, crewman Brett Alonso, and the failed equipment that set events in motion. What gap between reported and actual location turned a solvable rescue into a mystery? Person: Karen Collins Person: Ken Jensen Person: Brett Alonso Date: September 15, 2022 Location: Coburn Island well site - The flare canister was discovered on September 19, 2022, sitting on a wellhead cap 160 yards from the nearest tidal creek. - The well site was more than 1.5 miles from open water and had shown no storm surge in over a year. - Ken Jensen, age 44, lived aboard the 42-foot catamaran Cass Meridian and had owned it for six years. - At 00:12 on September 15, 2022, Ken smelled burning fiberglass and found the secondary battery bank running hot due to a crimped connector. - Ken activated the EPIRB at 00:17, but the device’s last GPS fix was 11 minutes older, leaving the transmitted position about 0.8 nautical miles from the actual fire location. To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com. © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved. This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].